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St Helens 25-0 Huddersfield Giants: Highlights, player ratings and talking points

St Helens took on Huddersfield Giants tonight at the Totally Wicked Stadium in what was Sky Sports’ Friday night clash.

It was a close encounter in the first-half with Jonny Lomax and Will Pryce both missing penalties, but Lomax was on target when Joe Batchelor crossed for a try in the first-half.

Sione Mata’utia was sent off for Saints after a controversial incident with the forward picking up Danny Levi who was prone on the field.

Agnatius Paasi scored just after the break to make it 12-0 before Jack Welsby made it 18-0 after skipping out of a tackle.

Morgan Knowles was later yellow carded for an elbow in the face of Joe Greenwood to reduce Saints to just 11 men with nine minutes to go, but that didn’t stop Saints and Lomax notched up another just two minutes later.

Lomax was in the thick of the action, saving a try from Pryce in the last minute with an incredible tackle before Welsby slotted over a drop goal to rub sal into the Giants’ wounds at 25-0.

With the final whistle, Huddersfield were nilled for the first team under Ian Watson.

Highlights

Talking points

1. Red card

There’s only one place to start here – the red card to Sione Mata’utia in the opening quarter of the game. Mata’utia seemingly picked up Huddersfield man Danny Levi whilst the latter was down on the floor. There was a precedent set for those kind of incidents with Halifax’s Titus Gwaze picking up a Barrow man the week before and receiving an eight-game ban. The Saints fans and players weren’t happy, but you simply can’t do that on the field.

2. Batch the man

How good is Joe Batchelor? The second-rower has come on leaps and bounds in recent seasons and has been rewarded with the number 12 jersey by head coach Kristian Woolf. And, boy has Batchelor repaid his coach’s faith in him with some magical performances. His hard work was again brilliant in tonight’s game and the 27-year-old could force himself into Shaun Wane’s England thinking.

3. Huddersfield flat

Playing a side with 12 men should have been a boon for Huddersfield, but they looked flat in attack without Tui Lolohea and they squandered far too many chances with Innes Senior missing three in the corner.

4. Incredible Saints

This was dubbed as a huge game for Huddersfield given their proximity in the table, but Saints were incredible from start to finish. Even after Mata’utia’s red card, the Red Vee didn’t panic and went through the motions to inflict an impressive win. Jack Welsby and Jonny Lomax were in superb form.

Player ratings

1 Will Pryce – 7
2 Jermaine McGillvary – 6
21 Leroy Cudjoe – 6
37 Toby King – 6
25 Innes Senior – 4
23 Olly Russell – 5
7 Theo Fages – 7
17 Owen Trout – 6
9 Danny Levi – 8
15 Joe Greenwood – 7
11 Josh Jones – 7
12 Chris McQueen – 8
13 Luke Yates – 8
Substitutes
5 Ashton Golding – 6
20 Oliver Wilson – 6
27 Jack Ashworth – 5
29 Sam Hewitt – 5

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